Egypt State Information Service (SIS)

New Suez Canal to boost Egypt's economy, international navigation

Sunday، 02 August 2015 - 12:00 AM

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Western media have underlined that the New Suez Canal planned to be inaugurated on August 6 will boost Egypt's economy and international trade through increasing the number of transiting ships and reducing the waiting time for ships.

In a report on its website, the US Time said that Egypt has completed construction of a multibillion-dollar expansion of the Suez Canal that the government said will boost the country’s economy and aid world trade.

The expansion was a massive project completed in just one year after it was initially projected to take three, it said.

The new project adds 35 kilometers of new channels, in addition to 37 kilometers of existing waterways that were dredged to allow larger ships to pass. According to the Suez Canal Authority, 258 million cubic meters of earth were removed from the desert to cut the new channels.

It pointed out that the development will allow more ships to pass through the canal on a given day, reducing waiting time for one of the world’s most important shipping channels.

"The government expects that the project, along with the increase in world trade, will increase the daily number of ships from 49 at present to 97 a day by 2023," it added.

The Time lauded the New Suez Canal, stressing that the project will rescue the country's economy.

BBC has said that the New Suez Canal will double the revenues of the Egyptian treasury.